Man charged with groping women in Orange County

Abby Sewell

A Westminster man was charged Friday with groping four women at various public locations in Orange County.

Matthew Andrew Linville, 19, is charged with one felony count of false imprisonment by violence and four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration.

Linville allegedly attacked one woman while she was jogging through a neighborhood in Huntington Beach on Aug. 28, knocking her to the ground.

He allegedly groped three others on Sept. 13--in the Burlington Coat Factory at the Bella Terrace shopping center in Huntington Beach, in the parking lot at the same shopping center and in the parking lot of the Hoover Golf Center in Westminster.

According to KTLA, Linville was an employee of the mall where some of the attacks occurred.

The victims reported the crimes to the Huntington Beach Police Department and the Westminster Police Department. Linville was arrested Wednesday by Huntington Beach police.